Yet my gaze strayed back to the jungle. The strange unease grew, gnawing at my chest.
“After this war, we need to send a search party in there,” I said.
“You’re offering to lead it?” Calyx asked.
“Yes.”
If the wards were strong enough to rival the crater’s–or at least call to it–and the jungle was still able to spread, then something terribly wrong was brewing beyond the darkness.
“My dynasty did send scouts inside the Defector Lands, a hundred years or so after we defeated the Quoriliths and they were renamed from the Forbidden Swamps,” Zandyr said. “No scouts returned.”
“That Clan keeps popping up,” I said. “The Huntress is concerned with it, too, and I know your wife is as well.”
“The Quoriliths and their heinous ways were wiped from this world long ago,” Zandyr said.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but…too bad.” Elysia sighed. “I heard they had some mean potions. They’d perfected poisons I don’t even dare dream about.”
As far as I was concerned, the Quoriliths and their deadly ways could rot in the land they’d desecrated with their greed. But now that abominable past was infecting our present.
If Beren’s ways wouldn’t be halted soon, the Ashrift Clan would suffer the same fate as the Quoriliths.
“I’ll send word to Geryll to see if he can find anything related to this place,” I said. That way, he could still feel included in those grand plans he was so eager to join, but far, far away from any danger. “This place has been left undisturbed and unchecked for too long. There’s danger in every breeze. Something must be causing it.”
Dark, dark magic had been used here. I felt its fiery reach on my skin, tasted its murkiness on the tip of my tongue.
“I agree.” Zandyr nodded grimly. “There are monsters in there. After the war, we’ll go in there.”
“After.”
Neither of us said the obvious truth.
There would be no after if we didn’t survive.
Those grim thoughts persisted as we advanced in funeral silence. Thousands of souls, and none of them dared utter a word. I still worried about the crater not letting Allie pass–and kept telling myself it was for her own safety, to not run home as I almost had–but I was glad she hadn’t witnessed this.
With each ward, I checked my daggers for another flicker. None came.
Whatever had disturbed them had quieted.
The concern had not.
It stuck to my spine, ghosting after me long after we’d slipped past the Defector Lands and their oppressive energy. The air had cleared and the army had come alive once more, even as the strain of the road echoed in their voices.
“I can’t wait to take a bath.” Elysia rolled her head, massaging her neck.
“One more bend in the road,” Zandyr said.
“Best enjoy every bed, washroom, and pelt the villagers left behind.” Calyx groaned as he readjusted his wounded leg. The ride in the carriage must have been brutal on him. “We won’t find such luxuries once we cross the river.”
“You could have enjoyed all of them if you’d just stayed at home.” She sniffed. “But no, you had to risk your life for your precious contraptions.”
“We’re all risking our lives. I wasn’t about to let you have all the fun.”
I doubted anyone could have fun so close to those wretched lands.
The villagers all through the Blood Brotherhood territory had long been evacuated into the safety of the Capital. The settlement up ahead, where we’d stop for the night, was no exception.
But I still marveled at how they survived in this place.
